From the latest in home decor to yesterday's restored delights, Julie shares her inspirations.

Color in the Kitchen

They say too many cooks in the kitchen is a bad thing, but too much color in the kitchen? That’s never a bad thing! Ok, never say never… but today we’re getting outside of our beige box!

The kitchen is often one of the most under-decorated places in the house, and yet, it’s the room that is most often the gathering point of the entire home. Many, many more people see your kitchen than the bedroom you worked so hard on styling (sorry, but it’s true!)

I really think that the kitchen is often forgotten because there tends to be lack of wall space. In addition, functionality trumps trend, and we give up trying. Cabinets and toasters take over, and before we know it, we’ve forgotten that there are other ways we can make the kitchen dynamic and inviting.

One of the best ways to do this is with bright-colored dishes, linens, serving ware, cookbooks and recipe boxes – essentially, accessories for your kitchen. If you can move beyond storing your “accessories” in drawers and behind doors, you’ll find that they can be some of the most useful decor you own.

Do you have a kitchen bench or small area that could use a throw pillow? Toss a machine-washable one into the mix to see what happens; you may be surprised! Need a canister for your utensils? Why not use a colored glass jar or a bright ceramic pitcher?

If you’re in a small space, combining functionality with fun colors can be a great way to stretch a budget too. If you need to purchase dishes anyway, why not make them part of your overall design?

The best part is, colored kitchens are in! Long gone are the days when Fiesta® was your only option. Thanks to Rachael Ray and others who pushed retail back into a world of colors other than white, we now have a variety of palettes to choose from.

I just received a huge shipment of blue, orange, lime, purple and red kitchenware at the shoppe! Check out the photos or drop by if you want to see it for yourself!

How have you incorporated color into the cocina? I’d love to hear your ideas on being creative in the kitchen!

2 thoughts on “Color in the Kitchen”

I bought 200, 25 different patterned Mexican tile while on vacation in Santa Fe and hung them in my kitchen as back splash. Wow! That added such a punch of color that I don’t need much else in the way of accessories–just some bronze canisters and fruit basket and a glass jar of river rock with artificial succulents. Ole!